Our St. John’s, Newfoundland Adventure: Whales, Puffins, Cafés & Coastal Views

There are places you enjoy visiting once, and then there are places you keep finding reasons to return to.

Newfoundland falls firmly into the second category for us.

I have family in the province, and this was our second summer in a row visiting Newfoundland together. Much of this trip was spent in and around St. John’s, where we returned to favourite cafés and pubs, explored the waterfront, drove to some beautiful coastal communities and finally went whale and puffin watching out of Bay Bulls.

We saw whales breaking the surface beside our boat, thousands of puffins around Gull Island, colourful streets, rugged beaches and some of the best coastal scenery in Canada.

This is not intended to be an exhaustive guide to Newfoundland. These are simply some of the places we personally visited, enjoyed and would recommend to someone planning their own trip.

The easiest option for many travellers is flying directly into St. John’s International Airport.

We have also travelled to Newfoundland by Marine Atlantic ferry, which creates a completely different type of arrival.

If you are coming from Nova Scotia and want to bring your vehicle, the seasonal ferry between North Sydney and Argentia is particularly useful because Argentia is only about 90 minutes from St. John’s.

The crossing is long. Marine Atlantic currently lists the route at approximately 16.5 hours, and the service operates seasonally rather than year-round.

But we think the ferry can be part of the adventure rather than simply transportation.

You can book a cabin, get some sleep, eat onboard, walk around the vessel and wake up in Newfoundland with your own vehicle ready to explore.

We have found the cabins quite comfortable, and on a crossing this long I would personally recommend having one.

You can make the trip without booking a cabin, but that is a long time to spend trying to sleep in a public seating area.

For a road trip through Newfoundland, bringing your own vehicle is a major advantage because many of the places we enjoy most are outside downtown St. John’s.

When we stay downtown, our favourite base is Blue on Water.

It is a boutique hotel and restaurant directly on Water Street, which puts you within walking distance of many of the places we visit most often.

The rooms have considerably more personality than a typical chain hotel, and the location is difficult to beat.

During the trip featured in our video, we paid approximately C$275 per night.

That is not inexpensive, but for us the downtown location is worth considering because we can leave the vehicle behind and walk to cafés, restaurants, pubs, shops and the waterfront.

Blue on Water also has its restaurant downstairs, and being able to order excellent food without leaving the building is a nice bonus after a long day exploring.

Hotel rates can obviously change depending on the season and room, so our C$275 figure should only be treated as what we paid during this particular visit.

One of the best ways to introduce yourself to St. John’s is simply to walk.

Water Street runs through the heart of downtown and is lined with restaurants, cafés, shops and historic buildings.

During the summer, a large section becomes part of the Downtown Pedestrian Mall, closing to regular vehicle traffic and creating more room for patios and pedestrians.

The exact dates vary by year. For 2026, the City of St. John’s is operating it from June 25 through September 7, so check the current schedule if the pedestrian mall is important to your trip.

We enjoy wandering without much of a plan.

Stop somewhere for coffee. Go into an interesting shop. Look down side streets. Walk toward the harbour.

St. John’s is particularly good for this type of travel because there are interesting details everywhere.

One of our favourite morning stops is Birdie on Water Street.

Get there early.

The display is usually piled with pastries and baked goods first thing in the morning, but popular items can disappear quickly.

We have made Birdie part of our routine when staying downtown: grab a coffee, choose something from the display and then continue walking around St. John’s.

There are many places to eat in the city, but this is one we repeatedly return to.

For a larger breakfast, we also like Bagel Cafe, located only a short walk uphill from Water Street.

It has become another St. John’s staple for us.

After breakfast, you are already in a good position to spend the morning exploring downtown on foot.

That is one of the advantages of staying in this area. You can eat breakfast, walk through the colourful neighbourhoods, visit shops and eventually find your way toward the harbour without having to move the car.

You cannot visit St. John’s without noticing the colour.

The rows of brightly painted homes have become one of the city’s most recognizable visual features.

Take some time to leave the busiest commercial streets and wander through the surrounding neighbourhoods. You will find plenty of the colourful houses people associate with St. John’s and some excellent places for photos.

Just remember that these are people’s homes rather than tourist attractions. Enjoy them from the public sidewalks and streets.

St. John’s Harbour is an active working harbour, so getting a completely unobstructed view is not always as simple as it seems.

There may be enormous ships, containers and industrial activity in front of you.

But that is also part of the character of the city.

One scene we never get tired of is looking through the Narrows with Signal Hill rising above the entrance to the harbour.

There are viewpoints throughout the area, but even simply walking around downtown will occasionally give you a great angle.

We have also found that the seating area toward the rear of the Jumping Bean Coffee Shop can provide an interesting harbour view.

I love Newfoundland music, which means Fred’s Records is basically mandatory whenever we are in St. John’s.

It is one of my favourite record stores anywhere.

Fred’s does a particularly good job highlighting Newfoundland and Labrador musicians alongside popular artists from elsewhere.

That local emphasis is exactly what I want when visiting a record store while travelling.

I can buy records from major international artists almost anywhere. In Newfoundland, I want to discover Newfoundland music.

Even if you are not a serious record collector, Fred’s is worth browsing if you enjoy music and local culture.

Farther along the waterfront is one of the most meaningful stops in St. John’s: the Terry Fox Mile Zero monument.

Before visiting, I had not fully appreciated that Terry Fox began his Marathon of Hope in St. John’s.

On April 12, 1980, he began the journey here after collecting Atlantic seawater, with the intention of eventually reaching the Pacific Ocean.

Standing at the starting point makes an enormous Canadian story feel much more tangible.

There is a statue and information about Terry’s journey, and it is an easy addition to a downtown walk.

For Canadians especially, I think this is one of those places worth taking the time to visit.

If someone asked me for one attraction they absolutely should visit in St. John’s, Signal Hill would be near the top of the list.

It overlooks the city, the harbour, the Narrows and the Atlantic Ocean.

The views alone justify going.

The site also has centuries of military and communications history, with Cabot Tower being its most recognizable structure.

You can hike up from the city if you are looking for a challenge, but most visitors drive toward the summit and explore from there.

We usually drive.

There are trails, historic structures and several places to stop and simply appreciate the view.

One useful distinction: access to the grounds and parking is free, while admission charges can apply to the Visitor Centre depending on the time of year and current Parks Canada programs.

The grounds remain open year-round.

Even if you have no interest in spending hours exploring the history, go for the scenery.

St. John’s makes much more geographical sense once you stand above it and see the city, harbour and ocean together.

And occasionally you may even encounter an enormous Newfoundland dog posing for photos with visitors, which seems about as appropriate as it gets.

Another famous St. John’s attraction is George Street.

Grace and I are not big late-night partiers or bar hoppers, so it is not the centre of our trips.

But if nightlife is important to you, this is one of the places St. John’s is known for.

It is located just off Water Street and becomes considerably more active in the evenings.

Even if you do not plan to spend the night hopping between bars, it is worth walking through to see another side of downtown.

A drinking spot that interests us for a completely different reason is The Crow’s Nest.

This historic military club served as a retreat for Allied naval officers during the Second World War.

Today it combines a small bar with an extraordinary amount of naval history.

The relatively compact space contains military artifacts and memorabilia, including gunshield art associated with ships and crews from across Canada.

This is not somewhere we would rush through.

Have a drink and spend some time looking around.

Hours can be limited, so check whether it will be open before building your day around a visit.

Another favourite is The Ship Pub, tucked down a staircase off Duckworth Street.

It feels like the type of place that belongs in St. John’s.

It has been part of the city’s cultural and music scene for decades and is another good option when you want something more relaxed than the larger George Street establishments.

We tend to gravitate toward places like The Ship rather than late-night clubs, which probably tells you something about how we travel.

For a first visit, these are some of the places from this trip we would prioritize:

• Walk Water Street
• Grab coffee and a pastry at Birdie
• Have breakfast at Bagel Cafe
• Explore the colourful residential streets
• Visit Fred’s Records
• Stop at the Terry Fox Mile Zero monument
• Drive to Signal Hill
• Have a drink somewhere with some history, such as The Crow’s Nest
• Visit The Ship Pub if you prefer a more relaxed atmosphere
• Spend some time simply looking at St. John’s Harbour

You can comfortably combine many of these into a day without creating an aggressive itinerary.

One reason we recommend having access to a vehicle in Newfoundland is how quickly the scenery changes once you leave St. John’s.

Torbay Beach is a good example.

It is only a short drive from the city but feels completely different.

The coastline is rugged, with unusual rock formations and views out over the Atlantic.

Depending on the season, you may also see capelin along the shore.

Torbay Beach is free to visit and makes an easy addition to a day when you want to leave downtown without committing to a long road trip.

There is also a nearby restaurant where we enjoyed good food, local beer and an excellent coastal view.

We even spotted horses nearby during our visit.

It is exactly the type of small detour that repeatedly makes Newfoundland rewarding.

We were also fortunate enough to visit family in Freshwater, where my aunt and uncle have a cottage.

That led to one of the less conventional parts of the trip: taking a side-by-side along dirt roads through the hills.

Eventually, we reached Salmon Cove.

Salmon Cove Sands is a striking beach surrounded by cliffs, with approximately 500 metres of fine grey sand.

The darker sand gives it a dramatically different appearance from many of the beaches we visit elsewhere in Atlantic Canada.

We did not come here looking for a typical tropical beach day.

We came for the landscape.

That distinction sums up a lot of Newfoundland for me. The coast is not necessarily about lying under an umbrella all afternoon. Often the attraction is simply standing somewhere and trying to absorb what you are looking at.

One activity had been sitting near the top of our Newfoundland list for a long time:

Whale and puffin watching.

We booked a tour with Gatherall’s Puffin & Whale Watch in Bay Bulls, approximately 30 minutes south of St. John’s.

During our trip, I booked through Viator and paid approximately C$125 per person.

Our tour lasted around 90 minutes and departed close to noon.

Gatherall’s currently describes its cruises as generally lasting between 90 and 110 minutes depending on weather conditions and where wildlife is located.

When you arrive, you check in at Gatherall’s blue building beside the harbour. There is also a gift shop to explore before boarding.

I would arrive early rather than pulling into the parking lot at the last minute.

Gatherall’s currently recommends checking in approximately 30 minutes before departure.

Our boat was clean and comfortable, and the crew did much more than simply drive us around.

The guides provided information throughout the trip, joked with passengers, sang songs and created a fun atmosphere.

You could even buy a beer onboard.

Naturally, I recommend something local. I went with a Quidi Vidi Iceberg.

There was also an opportunity for passengers to participate in a traditional Newfoundland Screech-In ceremony near the end of the excursion.

We did not see any icebergs during our particular trip, but that hardly mattered considering what we did see.

I should mention this because it is something I wondered about before booking.

I was slightly nervous about how I would handle the boat.

Our particular day was windy, and once we reached more exposed water the ride became noticeably bumpier.

I was completely fine.

Other passengers were not.

We saw people dealing with seasickness during the tour, so this is something to seriously consider if you know you are prone to motion sickness.

The ocean does not care that you booked a vacation six months in advance.

Conditions vary from one departure to another.

Dress in layers because temperatures can also feel very different offshore, and consider discussing appropriate motion-sickness options with a pharmacist or medical professional before travelling if this has been a problem for you previously.

Do not wait until you already feel terrible to start thinking about it.

Then came the moment we had hoped for.

Whales.

We saw as many as a dozen surfacing around the area during our excursion.

They would break the surface, disappear and then reappear somewhere else.

Occasionally we would see a tail before the whale slipped back beneath the water.

It was extraordinary.

Whale sightings can never be guaranteed because these are wild animals. Gatherall’s currently notes that whales are most commonly encountered from roughly mid-June through mid-August, although sightings vary by season and trip.

We happened to have an excellent day.

Standing on the deck trying to predict where the next whale would surface is one of the strongest memories from this Newfoundland visit.

The whales were only half the experience.

Our boat also travelled alongside Gull Island within the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve.

The cliffs and grassy slopes are home to an enormous seabird colony, including Atlantic puffins.

We saw thousands of them.

Some were flying over the water. Others disappeared toward the island where they nest in burrows.

Puffins look somewhat awkward and cartoonish in photos, and somehow even more so when you see them flying past the boat.

That only makes them better.

The scale of the colony was what surprised us most.

Seeing one puffin would have been exciting. Seeing the air and water filled with them was something entirely different.

For us, absolutely.

At approximately C$125 each during our trip, this was not a cheap 90-minute activity.

But it delivered one of the strongest experiences of our Newfoundland visit.

We saw whales.

We saw huge numbers of puffins.

The guides were entertaining.

The scenery was excellent.

And the tour itself felt distinctly Newfoundland rather than like a generic wildlife excursion that could happen anywhere.

I would book it again.

The only major caveat is seasickness. If you are extremely sensitive to boat movement, think carefully about conditions and prepare accordingly.

You do not need to follow our exact schedule, but someone planning a few days around St. John’s could organize these experiences roughly like this:

Day One: Downtown St. John’s

Start with Birdie or Bagel Cafe, then spend the morning walking Water Street and the surrounding neighbourhoods.

Visit:

• Fred’s Records
• Terry Fox Mile Zero monument
• St. John’s Harbour
• Signal Hill

Finish with dinner downtown and a drink at The Ship, The Crow’s Nest or another pub that catches your attention.

Day Two: Bay Bulls and wildlife

Drive south to Bay Bulls for a Gatherall’s whale-and-puffin tour.

Leave some flexibility around the excursion rather than packing the day too tightly, particularly because ocean conditions and departure schedules can change.

Return to St. John’s afterward for an easy evening downtown.

Day Three: Coastal exploring

Drive north from St. John’s toward Torbay Beach.

With additional time, continue exploring communities around the Avalon Peninsula or make a longer drive toward places such as Freshwater and Salmon Cove.

The important part is not trying to check attractions off a list.

Give yourself time to stop when Newfoundland presents you with an interesting road, lookout or piece of coastline.

It happens frequently.

After visiting Newfoundland repeatedly, a few things stand out.

• Stay downtown for at least part of the trip
• We love having Water Street outside the door because it allows us to experience St. John’s on foot.
• Rent a car or bring your own
• Downtown is walkable, but many of Newfoundland’s best experiences require driving.
• Take the boat tour
• Wildlife varies, but our Gatherall’s excursion was outstanding.
• Leave St. John’s
• We love the city, but Newfoundland really starts revealing itself when you get out onto the coastal roads.
• Do not over-plan
• Some of our favourite moments involve a random beach, viewpoint or road we did not originally expect to explore.
• Bring layers
• Newfoundland weather can change quickly, and conditions on a whale-watching boat may feel considerably cooler and windier than they do on land.
• Give yourself more than a weekend
• You can see plenty around St. John’s in a few days, but Newfoundland is a large island with far more to experience.

Our trip continued beyond everything covered in this article.

The obvious answer is that I have family here.

But that is not the entire reason.

Newfoundland has a combination that is difficult to replicate.

St. John’s gives us colourful streets, live music, excellent pubs, cafés and restaurants. Drive a short distance and suddenly you are beside dramatic cliffs, beaches and the open Atlantic.

Head out on the water and you may find yourself surrounded by whales and puffins.

Then there are the people, the music and the feeling that Newfoundland has retained a very distinct identity.

We have visited more than once, and we still leave with places we did not have time to see.

That is probably the best explanation for why we love Newfoundland.

It never feels finished.

And this particular adventure wasn't finished either. Our next stops would take us to Cape Spear and Petty Harbour, two more places that gave us another reason to love this province.